Method of computerized monitoring of investment trading and associated system

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

0001The present application is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/860,714 filed Jun. 3, 2004, entitled A METHOD OF COMPUTERIZED MONITORING OF INVESTMENT TRADING AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEM which in turn claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/564,848 entitled “A METHOD OF COMPUTERIZED MONITORING OF INVESTMENT TRADING AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEM” filed Apr. 23, 2004.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

00021. Field of the Invention

0003The present invention relates to a method and associated system for computerized monitoring of investment trading and more specifically it relates to a system which as to a specific trader and a specific investment obtains current information regarding selected trading parameters and compares it with historic trading data regarding the same and applies rules to determine if a departure from the rules has occurred.

00042. Description of the Prior Art

0005It has long been known to employ computerized systems to process data, store the same and provide for output and various formats as desired. It is also been known to use the same for investment purposes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,749,077 and 5,893,079.

0006In recent years, the need for a system to provide more effective and timely monitoring of investment activities has become acute. More specifically, numerous instances of improper conduct have resulted from “market timing” in the trading of mutual funds. For example, individuals have been known to engage in frequent purchases of mutual funds in large quantities at an early phase of an upward movement of the market and sell the same after a brief elapsed period. The frequency of such transactions has reached the point in many instances of being burdensome to the mutual fund. The mutual fund may at times be forced to sell investment securities at a less than preferred time in order to reimburse such traders for their sizable redemptions. Also, the increased trading volume increases the mutual fund's transaction costs. This results in other investors being hurt as the market timing traders prevent the mutual fund from doing the most efficient job of maximizing the return for all investors. In addition, there have been instances of late trading involving transactions which were permitted to occur illegally after the market had closed, thereby permitting the individuals engaging in such trading to take advantage of late-breaking news in anticipation of the response by the market upon opening the next day.

0007There remains, therefore, a real and substantial need for an effective automated system which can monitor on a rapid and reliable basis improper or undesirable trading behavior.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

0008The present invention has met the above described need. It provides a method by which computerized monitoring of investment trading may be accomplished in a rapid, efficient and accurate manner by providing historic trading data for a specific trader, selecting a plurality of trading parameters for the specific trader and obtaining current information regarding those selected parameters followed by reviewing the current information and/or the historic trading data and then determining whether any of the rules employed in the method have been violated based upon the current information and historic trading data. In a preferred embodiment, the rules are applied to the current information and the historic trading data after comparison of the two categories of information. In the event of a departure from the rules, an appropriate alarm report is emitted.

0009The method and system may advantageously be employed in monitoring a specific trader with respect to a specific investment such as a mutual fund, for example, to determine whether improper market timing has occurred.

0010Various forms of trading parameters including pattern recognition are provided as a preferred means for monitoring such activity.

0011The computerized system of the present invention includes the data receiving interface for receiving trading data and organizing it according to the specific trader and specific investment. A server is structured to receive the organized trader- and investment-specific data from the receiving interface as well as providing an historical data unit to deliver data to the server. The server is structured to receive rules which govern permissible conduct and to compare the rules with the current information and historic data in making a determination as to whether a departure from acceptable trading conduct has occurred.

0012It is an object of the present invention to provide a computerized method and system for efficiently, accurately and promptly monitoring selected trading parameters in order to determine if a departure from the rules has occurred.

0013It is another object of the present invention to provide such a system which is structured to focus on a specific trader and within that specific trader's activities a specific investment and the trader's conduct with respect to the same over a period of time.

0014It is another object of the present invention to permit the rules to be revised by the user so as to alter the standards.

0015These and other objects of the invention will be more fully understood from the following description of the invention with reference to the drawings appended hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0016<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is a flow diagram showing a form of method of the present invention.

0017<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a schematic diagram illustrating a form of computerized apparatus of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

0018As employed herein, the term “investments” shall expressly include, but not be limited to, mutual funds, common and preferred shares of stock, whether listed on an exchange or not, high-yield corporate bonds and high-grade corporate bonds, municipal bonds, United States bills, notes and bonds, mortgage-related investments and short-term securities such as commercial paper, banker's acceptances, repurchase agreements and supporting currencies.

0019As employed herein, the term “trading parameters” means one or more units of information relevant to investment trading in one or more investment products and shall expressly include, but not be limited to, transaction date, transaction time, price, product identity, trader identity, investment identity, trading volume and investment price history.

0020As employed herein, the term “historic trading data” means as to a specific trader, specific details regarding the trading record of that trader in respect of both sales and purchases including, but not limited to, the investment, the number and value of the specific investment, as to each trade the investment date and amount, with respect to sales, profit both before and after commissions and with respect to investments held, the return on investment before commissions, after commissions and annualized, patterns of trading, profitable trades, elapsed time between trades, number of market timing trades, trader trading history, dollar volume of market timing trades, percentage of market timing trades to all trades, trading patterns and selected critical days.

0021As employed herein, reference to “sub account” or “detail account” shall mean trader account information which may include one or more of the following: shareholder registration information, broker information, holding information and asset position information.

0022As employed herein, “omnibus account” refers to a large group of investors that are reported as a single account and an “omnibus trade” is a trade against an omnibus account.

0023As employed herein, a “detail trade” is a trade against a detail account.

0024As employed herein, the term “rules” means a group of standards with respect to which a plurality of events can be compared to determine if behavior of interest, as hereinafter defined, with respect to investments exists or may exist and shall expressly include, but not be limited to, standards relating to one or more of the following: (a) patterns of activity; (b) profiling; (c) pattern matching; (d) trading volume; (e) asset value changes; (f) investment statistics; (g) heuristics; (h) trading history; (i) legal requirements; (j) regulatory requirements; (k) trading parameters; (l) trader policies; (m) mutual fund policies; (n) statistical analysis; (o) neural networks; (p) expert systems and (q) artificial intelligence techniques.

0025As employed herein, the term “behavior of interest” means information or data which when compared with the rules results in the conclusion that a rules violation exists or may exist or a departure from the rules exists or may exist or a potential departure from the rules which should or might be investigated further exists. It will be appreciated that there may be departures from rules which are not of sufficient magnitude or of sufficient clarity to be deemed a rules “violation”. In that situation, the result may be a determination that a departure from the rules has occurred or that a potential departure from the rules which should or might be further investigated has occurred. It will also be appreciated that in some cases a “departure from the rules” merely indicates that a specific type of trading activity or behavior has or may have occurred.

0026This present invention allows the user to detect predefined types of activity such as market timing, but it also allows the user to define additional patterns or types of activity or behavior that are of interest to and specific to the user.

0027The present invention provides means for isolating a trader and specific investment. The term “trader” embraces not only an individual trader who is the holder of an account, but also a wide variety of others to be monitored in a similar manner in respect of trading activity such as brokers, account representatives and account managers, for example. The invention includes generating a database of historical trading data regarding the specific trader as well as obtaining current information on a plurality of trading parameters which can be compared with the historical data. The trading parameters are preferably selected to correspond to the rules employed. Automated application of rules is employed to determine if a departure from the rules, such as market timing activity, has occurred with appropriate communications being emitted when such departure from rules has been determined to exist.

0028A preferred form of the method of the invention is illustrated in the flow diagram of <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> wherein a plurality of data packets represented by trading parameters <b>1</b>-<i>n</i>, bearing, respectively, reference numbers <b>4</b>, <b>6</b>, <b>8</b>, <b>10</b> are all processed <b>20</b> to provide current trading information regarding a specific trader. This information is not only delivered to the historic data for combination therewith <b>24</b> at <b>26</b>, but also is subjected to a comparison between the current information and the historic trading data <b>30</b>. This information is then subjected to application of the rules <b>34</b> in order to determine if a departure from the rules or other behavior of potential interest exists. The rules <b>36</b> which govern the method of evaluation or detection may be revised by the user or others permitted to do so <b>38</b> and then are provided in their current form for the comparison <b>34</b>. The next block indicates the issue of whether a departure from the rules has occurred <b>44</b>. If the answer is “no”, that is the end <b>48</b> of that cycle of the process. If the answer is “yes”, then an alarm report, which may be of any desired nature, content and format, is delivered <b>50</b> and the existence of this departure is delivered to the historic data for the specific trader <b>24</b>. This cycle is repeated <b>60</b> with a predetermined frequency as determined by the user.

0029While the preferred practice of the invention involves making a comparison of the current information with the historic trading data, in some instances one may avoid the comparison and employ solely the current information or historic trading data in applying the rules.

0030It would be appreciated that using the method and apparatus of the present invention, the rules are compared with current information or historical trading data or both to ascertain if behavior of interest as defined herein exists and, if so, analyzing whether a rules violation, a departure from the rules which may not technically be a violation or a potential departure from the rules which would require or make desirable further analysis has occurred. In some instances, there would be no clear violation of the rules or departure from the rules, but a rules evaluation indicating that it would be desirable to review the particular pattern or circumstances in order to determine if further monitoring or other action would be desirable.

0031The rules <b>36</b> may be modified and corresponding changes made in the trading parameters <b>4</b>, <b>6</b>, <b>8</b>, <b>10</b> to facilitate efficient monitoring.

0032It will be appreciated that the historic trading data contains information regarding patterns of trading, times of trading, particular critical days and relationship to trading as well as the foregoing summarized information.

0033Some of the rules may relate to preferred practices of a user such as a mutual fund, brokerage, broker, dealer, government agencies, or others involved in the investment community, while others might relate to determination of improper conduct such as market timing.

0034Referring to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref>, there is shown apparatus employable with the present invention. Sources of trading data <b>70</b>, <b>72</b>, <b>74</b>, <b>76</b>, which are structured to provide trading parameters with respect to a specific trader and specific investment, deliver data to the interface <b>80</b> which processes the current trading parameter data for the specific trader and delivers it to the server <b>86</b>. Server <b>86</b> also receives historic trading data from historic data unit <b>90</b> and the rules form rules unit <b>92</b>. The server <b>86</b> compares the current trading parameter data with the historic trading data which is then evaluated in respect of the rules with information being emitted through interface <b>96</b> to update the historic data unit <b>90</b> and to deliver information to the user as by terminals <b>100</b>, <b>102</b> as well as providing a storage unit <b>104</b>. If desired, storage can be within the server <b>86</b>.

0035Also, apart from the reports which may have any desired format and content and which are emitted from the server <b>86</b> through interface <b>96</b>, a user may access the information in a conventional manner.

0036Various forms of reports may be employed and the information may be provided in such a manner that multiple information units can be provided on a single terminal screen. Also, if desired, hard copy may be obtained by a conventional printer.

0037The server <b>86</b> may be structured to conduct statistical, probabilistic, heuristic, pattern-matching analysis of data in order to detect events of interest in respect of the trading activity of the selected trader with respect to one or more of his or her investments.

0038The system preferably has within the server <b>86</b> the capability of delivering results through at least one of the group consisting of html, xml, xbrl, spreadsheets and comma-separated files.

0039The invention may be structured to permit or prohibit an end user's viewing in a report or other format underlying detail trades or the omnibus trade.

0040While primary focus herein in respect of monitoring for “market timing” has been on mutual fund transactions as this is currently a major problem, the invention is equally applicable with respect to numerous types of other “investments” as defined herein.

0041The method and system of the present invention can monitor sub accounts (detail accounts) and omnibus accounts including detection of market timing with respect to each.

0042It will be appreciated, therefore, that the present invention provides a method and associated apparatus for the efficient, rapid and accurate processing of current trading parameter or trading data in respect of a specific trader and a specific investment, automated comparison of the same with the corresponding historical trading data followed by an application of rules to the same to determine whether there has been a departure from the rules and responsive action may be initiated if such is found to exist.

0043Whereas particular embodiments of the invention have been disclosed herein for purposes of illustration, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that numerous variations of the details may be made without departing from the invention as defined in the appended claims.